


Snapshots of a Friendship

by blessedharlot



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 12:06:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5665507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blessedharlot/pseuds/blessedharlot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Civil War, Natasha and Bucky build a new foundation between them... one moment at a time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snapshots of a Friendship

**Author's Note:**

  * For [diamondcrystal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/diamondcrystal/gifts).



> This is a bonus gift for nataliabuckys, from the prompt "Post-Civil War reconnecting."

  * For the first few weeks after meeting again, Natasha and Bucky are just… *awkward* around each other. Not even Natasha can find a cool or aloof demeanor when they’re in the same room. Sorting out how they’re going to interact is just.. complicated. Then, Nat’s birthday comes around. Bucky arrives at her small party for a few friends, obviously intensely uncomfortable but determined, and carrying a large, bulky, odd-shaped package. His friends all adopt their usual encouraging but slightly wary approach with him in large social situations. When Nat unwraps his gift, everyone is aghast – it’s a taxidermied cat’s body with a ghoulish porcelain doll head, and large bird wings attached. Natasha’s face lights up. She is delighted. It’s her favorite gift. It earns Bucky a hug and from then on out they’re the best of friends. (Though he leaves the party immediately after.)
  * When Bucky’s sensory stuff recovers enough for him to really try to stay at a big party, Nat shows up beforehand to improve upon his shirt choice and give him intel on dames with great asses who are into casual sex.
  * At parties they’re both at, one of two things happens. a) Nat continues her duties as wingman to get him laid. Or b) The two of them end up hiding in quiet corners together and improvising annoying little weapons to terrorize people with.
  * Nat gets both fossils hooked on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Bucky decides it’s a documentary of Steve’s first year out of the ice.
  * Nat rations them to one visit to a pancake house per month in her presence. If Bucky wants to eat out with her more than that, he has to try the restaurants she picks. He discovers he loves Indian food.
  * On trips home from missions and battles, Nat tends to borrow Bucky’s uncomfortably coopted limbs to use as pillows for naps. At first it was mainly his metal arm, with occasional use of a calf. But then one time he bitched about her continuing to walk on her injured foot, so she propped it up on his head and promptly nodded off.
  * Bucky can make her laugh like Steve has never heard from her… an unguarded glee, whether it’s giggling or belly laughter. Once any one of Bucky’s laughably bad ideas gets what he calls her “snort of approval,” he cannot be dissuaded from following through on it.
  * One day Nat and Bucky start reminiscing about their favorite Russian pastries and cookies. Nobody minds when Sam takes it as a challenge to learn how to bake them.
  * Bucky’s music taste differs dramatically from Steve’s penchant for old standards and big band. And Steve doesn’t always last long when Bucky tries to share his new music finds. It’s Nat that goes the distance through industrial albums and noise concerts.
  * Nat had hidden away all her most pleasant memories of dancing. She had forgotten how much she could enjoy it… until a party DJ played Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me,” and Bucky wanted help recalling the waltz lesson she once gave him. One particular mission had them attending a ball, and a young Natasha had insisted he learn. Turns out, it’s still true that nobody can waltz with her like Bucky can.
  * From time to time, Bucky discovers his entire wardrobe has been replaced. One time, it was replaced with bright floral-print shirts. Another time it was entirely Yankees jerseys. He typically wears whatever he had on his person for days on end until his wardrobe magically turns back to normal… or until he finds suitable coercion to make it return to its natural black.
  * No matter how clandestine her mission nor how spontaneous the end of it, Nat returns home every time to find fresh cut crocuses - her favorite flowers - waiting somewhere in her apartment. There’s never a card.
  * Nat shows up at Steve and Bucky’s apartment one day, hands them a leash with a pit bull at one end, says they have to babysit her dog Molly while she’s gone, and immediately leaves. They’re both highly confused to learn she *has* a dog, but Steve begins caring for the sweet girl. Bucky’s uninterested at first. But after a few days Buck realizes Molly enjoys roughhousing on the floor with him, and warms up to her a little. A couple of days after that, Bucky is hanging around the house listening to music and notices an intense flashback coming on.  By the time he notices, Molly is already by his side. Next thing he knows, Buck is in a quiet bedroom calming down scritching her. The following night, Sam joins them to watch a movie. Buck has fallen asleep partway through, and begins tensing hard and flailing with a nightmare. Molly hops up next to him on the couch and licks his face gently. Bucky comes to, quietly confused at the new sensation, and absentmindedly scritches her til he’s more alert and his heart rate slows. Sam realizes she’s a trained trauma support dog, and says so. Bucky processes Sam’s realization, looks at the dog suspiciously, and says “You’re not Natalia’s dog, are you?” Molly wags her tail. Buck gives her more scritches, resigned look on his face. A week later, when Nat’s back from her alleged trip, Molly and Buck are both flopped together in the recliner watching tv and napping. Nat says she’s come for her dog. Bucky’s quiet a second, then mumbles, “Dog’s mine now, fuck off.” Nat says okay with a small smile and leaves.
  * When Nat came back shaken from a particularly bad mission in Volgograd, Bucky used his newly practiced fort-building skills to create an impenetrable fortress of doom in her living room, stocked with cookies and vodka. They played cards there all night.
  * Bucky will occasionally be sitting down to supper with Sam or with Steve and Sharon, when Natasha shows up requesting that he help her with an urgent unspecified job in an undisclosed location. The first time it happened, he really didn’t plan on saying yes.  That’s not what his brain told his mouth to say. But she had brought his favorite pastry. Which he ate by the fistful as he found himself somehow being whisked away. Sometimes the job is helping friends of hers who are in messes, and sometimes it’s “good guy business” that he’s never fully brought up to speed on. Once it was to break into a museum to take her favorite painting.
  * One day they all end up just hanging out around Steve’s apartment. Steve and Sharon had just finished eating, and Bucky had just woken up. Sam had come by to return some books he’d borrowed, right as Nat had swung by after working out to check in with Bucky about an upcoming mission. And they all fell into chatting about this and that, together and separately. Steve had just walked back into the living room from the kitchen, having finished the dishes and a chat with Sam about some history resources, and his breath caught for a second when he glanced at Nat. The look on her face… it was subtle. But she was… she was quietly radiant. Almost unguarded. And happy. Bucky was next to her talking quietly but animatedly about something. Steve caught a couple of words before he pulled his attention back and gave them more privacy in such a suddenly intimate moment. Steve registered hearing a name he remembered from the old neighborhood. Bucky must be reminiscing about his childhood, telling Nat about old memories of his. Steve wondered if she had ever before had the chance to hear anything like that from Bucky.
  * Their friendships are sorely tested when - despite all of Natasha and Steve’s best efforts - Bucky is far less interested in their favorite Star Wars movies than he is in Star Trek… every geeky sciencey dorky iteration of it. Which he insists on catching up on. In its entirety.




End file.
